Abs () (block)

This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective. For information on the feature that replaced this one, see () of () (Operators block).

The absolute value is the distance of a number from 0. Another way to describe absolute value is that it makes a number positive—if it is negative, it becomes positive, and if it is positive, it stays positive. For example, the absolute value of -3 is +3 and the absolute value of +4 is +4. The mathematical way to write absolute value is |number|. For example, abs(-3) is the same as |-3|.

Removal

In Scratch 1.2, this block was removed, and replaced with a general () of () block. It contains 12 mathematical functions. The top value is abs, but the default is sqrt (square root).

Its position in the palette was between () mod () and round (). The new block is at the bottom of the palette.

Workaround

This block could be replicated with the following code:

if <(num) < (0)>
set [abs v] to ((num) * (-1))
else
set [abs v] to (num)
end